As promised, Apothecary Diaries, vol 11: This was a wild volume. Lots of politics, lots of tension, and the climax hit out of nowhere in a way I found surprisingly satisfying. Finally finding out more about Gyouko-ou, the Yi clan, and Rikuson was great, although some of it felt like back-filling information that could have been presented in a more cohesive way over time.

Still, super good volume with a lot of interesting developments. Honestly it speaks to the strength of the cast that Maomao took the backstage for most of this volume and it’s still fantastic.

Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World Volume 7 - It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while now but with this volume, I’m really starting to dislike the MC. Selfish characters are okay if a more considerate approach is just not occurring to them. But Tenma here is consciously selfish. For example in this volume, Tenma finds some remains of deceased adventurers and is asked if he could attend their funeral service as the one who found them and brought back their remains. Tenma then goes on in his inner monologue about how he made the one asking for this pay him for doing this and how he made it so those payments were off the books because it would look bad if people found out that he took money to attend the funeral. Or his complete disregard for a girl who is in love with him. Instead of telling her he has no interest he just ignores her advances. Seriously, Rainman overshadows Tenma’s social skills. But the novel makes this out as if it were completely normal behavior. No one around him points out that that is maybe not the way to behave and that MC is oh-so-quirky in the way he acts. There is a bonus chapter at the end written from other character’s POVs and I enjoyed that single chapter more than the ones before combined. 4/10

Cooking with Wild Game: Volume 24 - In this volume there is a very great conclusion to something building up for the last 15 or so volumes. Such a heartwarming moment that made me fall in love with the series all over again and I can’t wait to see how this will play out. 9/10

The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects: Volume 3 - There isn’t much progression this volume, just some comfy slice of life stuff happening, like a sheep sing-off to determine the new herd leader. I like me some comfy and the series is growing on me. My nitpick would be that most of the characters use very “safe archetypes”, up to the point where I would call them trope-y. There is room for them to grow though. - 7/10

I Had That Same Dream Again - I have read it in an audiobook form and I defenietely should stick with radio dramas. Author’s emotional intelligence really shines, characters are deep, plot is more like slice of life and I liked it.
7/10

Slime girl WN - I wanted to shut my brain off for a while and it accomplished that goal
4/10

How To Love Your Elf Bride, vol. 5 - Had to start the series over, but I’m really enjoying the family dynamic that’s developing between Zagan, Foll, and Nephy. Volume 6 continues this, but since that’s what I’m tackling this week, this thread really isn’t the right place for that.